Posts Tagged ‘Amazon’

New Federal Textbook Rules Already In Use At MC

Who loves following federal law? I don’t! But I recently found out about new federal regulations that effects Marietta College students and their textbook purchasing decisions.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act goes into effect July 1st, and contains many different things (thanks to Disruptive Library Technology Jester for the breakdown of the law).  One part that is important to students is that there are new textbook disclosure rules to help make class selections and book purchasing decisions a bit easier.

According to the law, colleges are now required to show what books and materials are required and/or recommended for each course at the time of scheduling.  Back when you scheduled, you should have noticed a book icon listed for each class.  Clicking on the icon will tell you what is required for the course, the price, and the ISBN.  Not all classes have books listed, so you may see “To Be Determined” and “No Required Materials” notes instead.  Textbook bundles must also be sold separately, with bundled and non-bundled options listed – including pricing breakdowns.

Ed. Note – According to a rep from the National Association of College Stores, which commented on the article, books are allowed to be bundled still.  Writing on the Mall apologizes for the error.  Here’s what they said:

Under the law, institutions do not have to sell or list textbook bundles seperatly. Publishers need to disclose such information to faculty, but faculty are free to continue to adopt bundles as required. Publishers do not have to offer unbundled for any package they determine as “integrated”.

Another change is that publishers are required to tell professors more information about books they may use for classes.  Professors will now know how much the book costs, what revisions have been made to the book, and other editions of the book in different formats (including their prices).

HEOA also asks for book options to be publicized better by the institution, including renting textbooks, buying used books, and digital textbooks.

Like I mentioned earlier, Marietta College has already adopted the new requirements in its online scheduling system.

Follett Higher Education Group, the company that owns the Marietta College Bookstore, has been advertising it’s own book rental program called Rent-A-Text.  Follett is trying to compete with Chegg (A person favorite!), a popular book rental service that has been around for a few years.  Half.com and Amazon are other great choices for used textbooks.

Amazon's Kindle Marietta College Students Excited About Kindle

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Amber Davis is a guest writer for Writing on the Mall.  She is involved with the Media Writing Two class at Marietta College, which has been submitting articles to us.  Her article is the first of many that you will see hit the site.  If you would like to see more like this, just let us know at patrick_h at writingonthemall dot net.

Danielle Stein, a sophomore at Marietta College, was faced with the tough decision on whether or not to return to Marietta College this year. Due to the rising prices of textbooks and tuition, it seemed that what Stein would spend a year on textbooks, would be the equivalent of one semester at a state college close to home.

This seems to be a common concern among many college students and it seems that there really is no current solution. Even buying textbooks on Amazon or eBay still can run students around $300, and they consider that a ‘deal’.

Amazon has recognized this problem and is currently working on the solution. Kindle, a portable digital reading device only about one-third of an inch thick and a 3G wireless connection capable of downloading entire books in under one minute is their answer.

Read more…

Book Buying Tips

If you havn’t heard, the book lists are up for the Spring Semester.  Typically not the most fun day, as you are expected to shell out around $500 (in most cases) for books.  Absurd.  If you follow these helpful tips, you should be able to save AT LEAST 30 to 40%, if not closer to the elusive 50% mark.

Read more…

Book lists are up…finally…

I was just about to post that my guess was going to be January 2nd, but then I got a tip that the booklists came online sometime today.

Head over to the Marietta Bookstore Online to find out how much your Spring semester is going to make you pay…or at least give you a number to show how much money you saved.

I’ll have a more in-depth look at how to save money on books up tomorrow, but for now remember that Amazon.com and Half.com or Ebay will get you at least (if not more) than half off for most people.

Black Friday Deals Now Available

To those of you about to embark on your annual journey to the local store on Friday, I salute you.  You are much more brave than I.

I will be spending the day recovering from my Turkey Coma (or what I can eat of it considering my braces were just tightened…meh).

I just wanted to alert those going shopping that many deals are actually being offered online before Black Friday.  While there will still be many many options that are in-store only deals, many (if not most) of the good deals can be had ahead of time on a merchant’s website.

My personal favorite Black Friday site, Black Friday Ads, has a list up of all the merchants that currently offer Pre-Black Friday savings.

Here’s my personal notes to this year’s Black Friday:

• If you’re looking for a Wii, they are out there.  Just not as many as were hoped.  Big retailers to check are Amazon.com (which has been rumored to have the biggest stockpile available), Wal-Mart, and Best Buy.
• There are some good deals on XBOX 360′s this year.  However, the Arcade edition just isn’t worth getting.  If you’re getting an XBOX, it needs to have a hard drive in it, especially after the New XBOX Experience came out.  The Arcade 360 is $200 and comes with a controller and two games.
• Wal-Mart does have an awesome deal if you’re looking to get a 360.  The 360 Pro (with hard drive) also comes with Guitar Hero 3: World Tour (the version that comes with a guitar) for $300.
• Playstation 3′s are coming down in price, but are still not quite wear they need to be to compete against the 360.  Only buy one if you plan on watching a lot of Blu-Ray movies, as that is its strongest feature in this round of the console wars.  I’ve seen nothing below $400.
• Speaking of Blu-Ray, you can get a Magnavox Blu-Ray player fr $200 at Wal-Mart
• Best Buy has a 50″ Plasma TV for $900.  If you have the cash for it as a college student, its a great buy, as it’s a Panasonic, which is normally a good brand.

If you are looking for a comparison of all digital cameras (or TV’s, or laptops, etc, etc) then check out Black Friday Ads comparison chart.  Buy smart…you don’t want to drop $500 on a paperweight Dynex brand.  Ech.

Best of luck to those of you that are going out and about.  You’ll likely need it .